They would have been seperated by group, arranged on the deck depending
on the strike that was to be launched. If you
look at the photos of Lexington at Coral Sea (there aren't many good
ones), it looks like - going stern to bow - the TBDs the farthest
aft, then the SBDs and then the F4Fs.
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-l/cv2.htm
I'm reading John Lundstrom's "First Team" now, and he mentions how the
May 7th and May 8th strikes took off, how many planes in each group and
in what order. IIRC, there were 50 or 53 planes in the May 7th
stike against Shoho. Let me know if you don't have a copy and
I'll go back to the Coral Sea chapter and let you know what he says, if
you want to know exactly.
HTH...